Quantifying Visual Specular Gloss Scale

Abstract

Current state-of-art color-difference equations for color quality control are developed mainly for matte surfaces without any gloss or textures. However, most of the home appliances or electrical devices available today have glossy appearance limiting the accuracy of surface color difference prediction. Therefore new visual appearance model development will be the next goal for the color scientists including not only the color but also other surface appearances such as gloss or texture. In this study, as a first step of surface appearance model development, the relationship between the perceived gloss and the measured gloss were investigated. Two sets glossiness data were obtained for the polycarbonate (PC) surfaces with the different levels of UV clear coating. The frist set came from the eleven black and white samples with different gloss levels and the second data set was collected using twenty one black and white samples. The samples were shown in the viewing booth illuminated with D65 simulator and the observers were asked to scale the perceived glossiness between 0 and 100 for black and white samples. Around ten observers participated each experiment. The experimental results showed that the observers can judge a glossiness of a sample consistently regardless the gloss level of the neighboring samples displayed together. It suggests that glossiness is an intrinsic and absolute visual attribute people use to judge the surface appearance. Also it is confirmed that black samples look glossier than white samples having the same physical gloss value. The experimental data in this study could be used to develop mathematical glossiness prediction model.